Cleaning Out Applications

Tips for cleaning out registry junk left over after uninstalling apps.

Sometimes when you uninstall applications they leave behind bits and pieces of themselves in the registry (and sometimes in the file system as well). A good tool for cleaning the registry of holdovers from Windows Installer-based apps is Msizap.exe, which can be found in the Windows Support Tools or downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. This tool, the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility, can be used to remove almost every trace of an application from your registry and is a great addition to your administrator's toolkit.

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The Author — Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch is a well-known expert on Windows Server administration and cloud computing technologies. He has published over a thousand articles on information technology topics and has written, contributed to or been series editor for over 50 books.

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